Saturday Six.

Six Albums That I Cannot Stop Listening To.

I.  This Is Happening - LCD Soundsystem
II.  Yndi Halda - Enjoy Eternal Bliss
III.  Gorilla Manor - Local Natives
IV.  Permalight - Rogue Wave
V.  The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
VI.  Transference - Spoon

The Dash-In Gets Untapped, Part Deux

Had a great time last night. I saw some of you there. I kept wishing my camera was a little better, but, but, but, so much noise. Please forgive Kevin the Kodak. He's on his last legs.

There was great beer, new friends, and firebenders! Fi..re...bend...ers!

Score! Enjoy.

Jealous? I am.

[ "..." ]

"Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference"

- Kurt Vonnegut         

[ + ] Untitled

I can't bring myself to give this photograph a title. I don't know why, but I can't. It could mean one hundred different things. This is one of my favorite photographs I've ever taken. It's easily in my top six.

The Dash-In Get's Untapped, Part One

If you live in Fort Wayne, this is the place to be tonight. The Dash-In, a wonderful bohemian coffee-shop/bar/cafe is getting 23 craft beer taps today. So in addition to serving Old Crown's special roasts, they now have twenty-three craft and artisian beers. And today only, in celebration of the joyous occasion and for the always exciting BuskerFest! (a celebration for street performers, fire-eating, and merry-making) every single one of the drafts is just two dollars.

Let the party begin. Photographs to follow.

A Flaw In The Plan

The last few years rose and converged into a long-awaited realization yesterday. It's been growing and trying to speak to me in the stillness, but I have trouble listening. I blame iTunes.

I realized that everything must change. Simple enough, yet, it spirals deeper.

As I stood in line at the Financial Aid office yesterday and watched my semester plans be slashed by red tape and tax forms, my mind went dark and melancholic. Driving back to my apartment I grudgingly got ready for work, to earn my pay making lattes and facilitating conversations. I ate a quick meal of lemon meringue pie to feel better. It helped slightly.

To give you insight into my work rituals, it is my custom is to ride my bike along the river and through downtown because it reminds me of riding along the Loire and France a few years ago. I leave 45 minutes early to arrive at least a half hour early; to sit, to read, and to wonder. but today I drove, because I didn't have the strength to ride. So I took the car for the first time in a month or so.

Usually I like to use this extra time to write in a journal mostly. Anything, once a day, needs to be written in there. I couldn't think of anything to write, nothing felt right, why bother with it.

Why bother with any of it? I liked this thought. So I pursued it further.

I knew I wasn't the happiest here, I felt restless and wasn't content with myself and everything rotating around it. So why bother with it? If I don't like it, I'll change it. I have the power to change my circumstances. Rotate the camera to see everything I've been missing. And so, the plan to leave was conceived.

Northern Indiana, I love you, but we must bid our separate ways. It's time to start anew. It's been coming for awhile. You've served your time, but I'll be gone by my twenty-second birthday.

And so the flaw in the plan becomes the cornerstone, the inception of long-desired dreams. For too long have I lived in dreams and the stories in my head. Fantasies of life as how I want them. I have never been my dreams, I have only ever been the reluctant reality of the mundane mediocrity, the modern man.

But I saw that I am not defined by my dreams, it is by the works of my hand will I bring forth the poetry and the bursting life and colors. And so I must risk my comfort, and put away my childish neurotic tendencies, paranoia, and risks of rejection to create the story of my life.

Rilke wrote it best. "All of the soarings of my mind begin in my blood."

With Ardor & Love, Away We Go.

Friday Five.

Five Albums I Forgot About, But Still Love.

I. Futures - Jimmy Eat World

II. Eyes Open - Snow Patrol

III. Songs For Silverman - Ben Folds

IV. One By One - Foo Fighters

V. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

I think iPods take away the magic of rediscovering things in your library. This was a wonderful afternoon.

[ + ] Optimism

[ ♫♫♫ ] Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Arcade Fire's much-anticipated new album comes out Tuesday. A few tracks have already leaked through websites and I've given them a few listens. I meant fifty listens.

When this drops on Tuesday, go pick it up immediately.

Concept albums are always my favorite. They tackle themes and symbols in elegant ways through music and poetry. In this adventure the Fire takes on "The Suburbs", the modern man, and the transitions from culture to culture within our own society.

In a word, brilliant.

re: Eden

I live here.

I need a great name for this place. Like the shack, the Roaring Twenties, or the Burrow. You know, something affectionate. I'll get my people on that.

My car's got a great name, so do I. Everything has got a pretty great name. Chelsea and I are fond of personalizing things. When we bought a tomato plant, we named it Herbert. We knew, we looked at that plant and knew. That plant, that tomato plant, is a Herbert. Or Herbie for short.

It's like Eden all over again. Got to name the bikes, the tomatoes, and the kitties.

So my apartment should have a name as well. Do you name things as well? Or is it just an Adam thing?